Mechanism for cleansing clothing or textile fabrics



(No ModeL) .J. W. WRIGHT & H. H. BUR'KES. -MEQHANISM FOR CLEANSING CLOTHING 0R TEXTILE FABRICS; No. 595,932.

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- operated upon entire freedom of movement UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN W. WVRIGHT AND HOWELL I-I. BURKES, OF LAMPASAS,

MECHANISM FOR CLEANSING CLOTHING OR TEXTILE FABRICS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 595,932, dated'December 21, 1897.

Application filed May 24:, 1897- To (LZZ whom/ 2725 777/0 7] concerm Be it known that we, JOHN W. WVRIGHT and HOWELL H. BURKES, citizens of the United States, residing at Lampasas, in the county of Lampasas and State of Texas, have invented new and useful Improvements in Mechanism for Cleansing Clothing or Textile Fabrics, of which the following is a specification.

Our invention relates to mechanism for cleansing clothing and textile fabrics,our purpose being to provide a simple and economical construction and combination of parts whereby the clothes or fabrics operated upon shall be disturbed and displaced at each successive stroke of a pump forming part of the mechanism, the currents of boiling water being forced into and sprayed through the clothes with such rapidity as to cleanse the same thoroughly in from three to five minutes of continuous operation, or thereabout, and entirely remove every impure or foreign substance that has worked into or adhered to the clothes or fabrics.

It is our further purpose to so construct and arrange the parts of a pump-washing mechanism as to permit a free circulation of the boiling water, independently of the pumping action, and to allow the clothing and fabrics while preventing them from settling around the bottom of the tank and arresting or obstructing the free passage of water through the pump.

It is our purpose also to provide a simple easily-operated mechanism which may be produced at a comparatively low cost, by the use of which clothing and textile fabrics can be thoroughly cleansed in a few moments without injury to the finest qualities of the same, all rubbing upon corrugated or roughened surfaces being avoided.

Our invention consists to these ends in the novel features of construction and new combination of parts hereinafter fully explained, and then particularly pointed out and defined in the claims which conclude this specification.

For the purpose of the following description reference will be had to the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 is a central vertical section of a pump washing mechanism, illustrating our Serial No. 637,945. (No model.)

invention. Fig. 2 is a detail view of the perforated shield and its sleeve detached from the machine. Fig. 3 is a horizontal section upon the line 3 3, Fig. 1, looking in the direction of the arrow.

The reference-numeral l in said drawings indicates the vat or tank in which the water, clothing or fabrics, and pumping mechanism are contained. This tank is of any required size according to the amount of work to be done by the machine. It is preferably of circular form, increasing somewhat in diameter from the bottom upward.

The tank 1 is closed at the top by a removable cover having a conical upper wall 2, be-

tween which and a nearly horizontal wall 3 is a water-chamber 4. This chamber is entered by a central pipe 5.0f comparatively large diameter, which extends downward to and rests upon the bottom of the tank 1, its lower end being provided with notches 6 to permit free passage of water from the tank into the lower end of said tube. A sleeve 7 closely surrounds the pipe 5, but is removable fromit when necessary, and upon the lower end of said sleeve is a shield or diaphragm 8, which lies a suitable distance above the bottom of the tank 1, upon which it is supported by four angular walls or partitions 9, each being substantially right-angled and so arranged that the angle liesnear the lower open end of the sleeve, while. the two walls extend nearly to 15, which carries two parallel rods 16, both of which are packed through the top of the tank and extend downward on opposite sides of and close to the pipe 5. To their lower ends is rigidly secured a band 17, which surrounds the sleeve 7 and carries a beater 18, having the form of a truncated hollow cone. The lower end of the beater 18 is provided with a bottom 18, which surrounds the sleeve '7, which serves to guide the beater in its Vertitween this fulcrum and its handle the lever is connected to the yoke 15 bya suitable link 21. At or near the lower end of the pipe 5 is a valve 22, which permits water to enter as the pump-piston 12 moves upward, but closes upon the downward stroke. The piston is provided with any suitable form of valve, so arranged as to open and allow water to pass through it when the piston moves downward, but closing upon the upward stroke of the piston, whereby the water which lies above said piston is forced into the water-chamber l. The wall 3 of this chamber is provided with numerous perforations 23,through which the water drawn into the chamber l is sprayed upon the clothes or fabrics in the tank.

As the pump-piston l2 descends the rods 16 carry the beater 18 downward to a point near the perforated shield or diaphragm 8. The action of this beater tends to agitate the clothing and expose every portion to the direct action of the sprays of boiling water projected by the pump.

The diaphragm 8 and sleeve 7 are usually allowed to remain in the tank, as the former provides a convenient support for the clothes when they are placed in the tank and the latter permits the pipe 5 and the pump to be inserted without becoming entangled with the clothes. Moreover, the perforated diaphragm allows the water to boil up through it and through the clothing, while it prevents the latter from becoming choked in the passages leading from the tank into the lower end of the pipe 5.

In use the tank 1 is preferably placed on a suitable furnace or heater; The water is thus maintained at boiling temperature, and by its own circulation, combined with the forcible spraying downward of numerous jets of the boiling water and soap and the constant displacement or agitation caused by the beater, we are able to cleanse any ordinary clothing or fabric from all soils in from three to five minutes, or thereabout.

What we claim is- 1. A washing-machine comprising a tank, a perforated diaphragm supported a little above the bottom of the tank, a central sleeve opening through and rising from said diaphragm, a pipe removably inclosed by said sleeve, its lower end resting on the tank-bottom and having water-passages in its edge, a valve in the lower portion of said pipe, a pump-piston 'in the same having a valve, a cover for the tank having a water-chamber the lower wall of which is perforated and entered by the said pipe, and means for operating the piston to force water fromthe tank into said water-chamber and spray it through the perforations in the lower wall of thelatter downward upon and through the clothes, substantially as described.

2. A washing-machine, comprising a tank, a perforated diaphragm having angular walls upon its lower face which support said. diaphragm a little above the bottom of the tank, a central sleeve opening through and rising from said diaphragm, a pipe removably inclosed by said sleeve, its lower end resting on the tank-bottom and having water-passages in its edge, a valve in the lower portion of said pipe, a pump-piston in the same having a valve, a cover for the tank having a waterchamber the lowerwall of which is perforated and entered by said pipe, a beater surrounding the pipe, a yoke connected to. the piston and having parallel rods attached to a ring which carries the beater and means for reciprocating said yoke,substantially as described.

3. In a washing-machine, the combination with a tank of a central pipe rising from the bottom and provided with a valve opening upward, a top, or cover, having awater-chamber provided with apcrforated lower wall through which said pipe opens, a piston in said pipe having a valve which opens on the downward stroke, a yoke connected to the piston and having parallel rods passing through the cover, a beater surrounding the pipe and reciprocated by the rods, and means for operating the yoke, substantially as described.

4. In a steam-pump washing-machine, the combination with a tank, of a perforated diaphragm supported above the bottom of said tank, a pipe lying in a sleeve rising from said diaphragm, a top or cover having a waterchamber the lower wall of which is perforated and entered by said pipe, a piston in said pipe having a valve which opens on the downward stroke and closes on the upward stroke of said piston, a beater having the shape of a hollow, truncated cone, its truncated end carried by a ring surrounding the sleeve and pipe, a yoke connected to the piston and having parallel rods which pass through the top and are secured to the said ring, and a lever fulcrumed on a bracket on the top, or cover and having a link connection to the yoke, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof we have hereunto set our hands in presence of two subscribing witnesses.

JOHN W. WRIGHT. HOW'ELL II. BURKES.

WVitnesses:

W. R. YOUNG, WV. F. GILBERT. 

